Devotion for Single Parents | Are You Trying to Fit Into Old Wineskins?

One spring day I was walking in my neighborhood. As I rounded the curve I noticed a little girl that looked to be about 5 years of age, playing outside while her mom was working in the yard. When I came back around the next time the little girl was dragging out a large tub. As I passed by her house she began to pull out the garden hose.

The next time around the block, the hose was in the bucket, water was spilling out over the sides and the little girl was nowhere to be seen. In just a moment she came running out of the house and had on what appeared to be last year’s swimsuit. Evidently she had grown quite a lot over the winter. She gleefully jumped in the tub of water. She tried to sit down in the tub. She stood, got out of the tub and walked around looking at it. With a look of determination she took a running jump and headed for the water again. No matter how hard she tried, she no longer fit in that small tub.

The little girl with her too little swim suit and the tub she could no longer fit into reminded me of a lot of single parents that have experienced a change in their lives. Some adults continue to try and go back and fit into their old life. Maybe you have experienced a crisis such as divorce or the death of a husband and you just can’t quite accept how your life has turned out. So you try to go back and fit into a life that no longer fits.

In Matthew 9:17 it says, “Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Jesus brings “newness” to our life. He doesn’t want us to try and fit into our old life. He wants us to pour ourselves into a new and better life with Him.

Each experience we have in life grows us and matures our life with Christ. People we meet become part of our living history. Attitudes change, trust levels change. Friends come and go. Hopefully our faith walk grows to the point we can’t fit into old wineskins.

“I live by faith in the son of God, who loved and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20b (NIV)

This was republished with permission. To read more from Linda, visit dc4k.org or hlp4.com

As an author, speaker, trainer, program developer and children’s ministry director, Linda has assisted countless single parent families and church workers by modeling and acting on the healing love that she has found in Jesus Christ.Currently she serves as the DivorceCare for Kids Ambassador, Children’s Ministry Consultant at her own church, and leads a single parent Bible study.

Known for the D6 Conference and D6 Curriculum, Randall House helps lead the family ministry conversation. Randall House provides events, opportunities and resources to help you do generational discipleship at church and at home. For more information, visit randallhouse.com.